Traditional storage frameworks are often assembled from discrete components, such as off-the-shelf generic processors and firmware to meet competitive standards of performance and manageability. However, such combinations of generic components fail to meet the requirements and expectations of a modem network-centric storage model. Accordingly, new, specially targeted components are being developed for storage area network (SAN) applications.
One such component is an Intelligent Storage Processor (ISP). An ISP represents a special-purpose processor that combines features of a storage controller with an embedded switch fabric to provide a high-performance virtualization storage service that presents a logical view of storage instead of a device-bound physical view of storage. For example, an ISP can replace a general processor in a storage controller system or intelligent SAN switch to process performance critical read/write commands, accelerate storage applications and provide manageability features.
System vendors provide custom logic for such special purpose processors to provide specific “value add” product features. For example, a storage system vendor can design one or more ISP's into a storage system and provide custom logic to enable potentially proprietary intelligent SAN services, such as routing, volume management, data migration and replication to be integrated into fabric switches, routers, storage management appliances, storage arrays and blade servers. As such, an ISP is equipped with the necessary hardware interfaces and software APIs to allow integration with a variety of existing storage networking equipment and management applications.
Special purpose processors attempt to support programming models flexible and powerful enough to meet the increasingly strenuous performance requirements and programming demands of storage system designers. However, existing approaches have not provided memory solutions that adequately accommodate the sophisticated, high performance needs of these systems.